INITIATION IN THE PYRAMID
The death-wish, uncovered by Freud, has been an enigma to students of the mind. Mounting numbers of suicides in affluent societies indicate, however, that the life-wish is an equally imposing enigma to a great many people. Only in recent times have psychologists articulated the idea, intuitively perceived by adepts of the Ancient Wisdom, that both the death-wish and the life-wish are normal desires, and that it is the tension between the two that allows the creative process of life to proceed. Thanatos (death) and Eros (passionate love for life) are twin "deities" or value-images in the unconscious world of archetypes. Jesus knew that the life-wish can never be fulfiled until the death-wish has been accepted and explored. "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die it springeth forth and beareth much fruit" (John 12:24). This has been analyzed as the psychology of a sick and morbid mind by contemporary physicians of the mind. However, all sickness is a lack of equilibrium and it is only because we have refused to give status and stature to the death-wish and have made ourselves sick as a society that we have seen the healthy mind of Jesus as a morbid pathology.
I talked once with a young man who had shot himself. He was unconscious for days but when he regained consciousness, the world of earth-life had taken on a beauty and an aura of numinous charm. Though some time has passed, he still experiences a lesser degree of w h a t Dr. Richard Bucke expresses as characteristic of those who have touched Cosmic Consciousness. All colors are more colorful, all sounds are more beautiful, all people are more charming, and all mundane things glow with an atmosphere of heightened significance.
I am by no means advocating gunshot wounds as initiations into Cosmic Consciousness. When a person says or feels that he does not want to live, what he really means is that he does not want to live under the circumstances and in the state of consciousness currently prevailing. It means he wants his life to be a fulfilled promise, and not a latent threat.
In the ancient esoteric religion of Egypt, the Great Pyramid was used as a temple of initiation for those who would experience death to the full, in order that their lives might be experienced to the full. Months, and sometimes years, of arduous training of the faculties of the body, intellect, and emotions, preceded the initiation into immortality. At the appointed time, when the cosmic tides (symbolized by the distribution of the planets through the constellations) were supportively distributed so as to bring forth the most fulfilling transition into a new order of life, the aspirant would be taken through the King's Chamber. Dressed in the robes of death he would be placed in the sarcophagus and be taken into a deep sleep, sometimes with the aid of sleeping potions. Then the hierophant, steward of the sacred mysteries, himself diligently purified and prepared, would draw the consciousness of the aspirant away from its dependence upon the body, guide the consciousness through the veil separating planes of consciousness, and conduct him through a series of tests so as to establish utter fearlessness. Then the aspirant would be conducted astrally into the world of spirits to be examined and instructed by those whose habitat this realm was. Then, carefully, with great love and wisdom, the hierophant would bring the soul down the planes of manifestation, and re-establish the firm, full connection of the soul with the body, so that body consciousness was renewed. Awakening and rising from the coffin, the initiate now knew the nature of death, and knew that it held no threats or torments for him. The fear of death being the root of all other human torment, this soul was now liberated. Nothing imposed by earthly conditions could now persuade this soul that ineradicable danger lurked in anything or anyone.
Now equipped with intimate and personal awareness of life beyond the veil, his energies could be dedicated to the just and wise use of the resources of his own consciousness and environment. The record in John 11 of the raising of Lazarus could well have been a premature experiment with such initiation. Jesus had no doubt given deep teaching and counsel to his beloved friends, Mary, Martha, and Lazarus, concerning the Resurrection Principle. This was intended to prepare them mentally and intellectually for handling the emotions that would be aroused by his own forthcoming crucifixion and resurrection. However, the aggressive consciousness of Martha may have impelled her to attempt to confer upon Lazarus the benefits to be derived from such initiation, not realizing that the feminine polarity of her being would be inadequate support for the safe conduct of Lazarus' soul for the full circuit.
Even without the supporting vibratory rate of a Temple or Pyramid, she could fairly readily draw the soul away from body consciousness, but it would have been necessary for her to manipulate her own energies and shift the weight of her consciousness to its masculine polarity in order to restore the unity of her brother's soul with body consciousness. Thus, such a Master as Jesus would be entitled, if not obligated, to repair this occult accident. While a teacher is not responsible for the use his disciples make of his instructions, he cannot help but weep at some of the imprudent applications made by even his most devoted followers. Thus, the tears which flow in every Bible at John 11:35, gain a deeply poignant significance.
I have myself been granted the grace of safe conduct without physical or mental damage in deliberately and voluntarily passing through the death experience into the realms beyond, returning with a consciousness of freedom and light enhanced by this encounter with the messengers of death. Students who wish further information on this may obtain a cassette recording of the details, events, and significance of this experience by writing to me in care of the publisher.
The speculation that the Great Pyramid was simply another burial place shrouds (if you will forgive a metaphysical pun) the truth that it was indeed a place of burying the old fearful self, encumbered by doubt and apprehension concerning the immortality of one's true being. The beloved St. Francis wrote, "In dying we are born to eternal life." Was he echoing the words of Jesus, or did he know?
In the esoteric religion of ancient Egypt, the Great Pyramid was known as the tomb of Osiris and Hermes. Osiris was the dying, rising Sun god. Physiologically, solar energy is entombed or captured in pyramids, ancient and modern, producing special verifiable physiological results. Esoterically, the sun is the emblem of the will. To be in the Pyramid and experience initiation into immortality requires the death and burial of the separative, personal will. Its energies then are entirely subsumed into the energy of the Divine Will which governs the universe and all its intricate interrelationships.
Hermes, playing the dual role of the messenger of the gods and a thief among men, is a figure of Mercury, the planet of the conscious mind. The pyramidal initiation into immortality also involves the death and burial of our old ways of mortal, albeit rational, modes of thought, observation, and deduction. It is interesting to note that the supposedly highest function of conscious mind is termed "deduction," yet we all know that to deduct is to subtract. Ordinary ways of conscious mind thinking subtract from the full, true picture of man's power in the universe and his intimate relationship with God. This side of Hermes, the thief, is therefore slain and buried in the initiatory rites. However, he regains life, as a part of the self, and henceforth all reasoning and observation and induction are based upon the premise of man's divine, immutable, invincible, and immortal nature. Thus Hermes, as messenger of the gods, lives in us as our thinking truly, thinking with that mind which was in Christ Jesus.
Though the rites of initiation in the ancient Pyramid were restricted to the pledged neophyte, the Golden Pyramid is open to the multitudes. Each one, according to his own receptivity and need, will be given the teaching and the energy to allow the thieving processes of mind to be slain and the inspired divine message of Truth to be reborn in his waking consciousness.
